Exam revision

Question 1

What is human resources planning?

Answer 1

Process of systematically reviewing HR requirements to ensure that the required number of people with the required knowledge, skills and abilities are available when needed.

Question 2

What is human resources planning also known as?

Answer 2

Employment planning

Question 3

What is the relationship between human resources planning and the organisations overall strategic plan?

Answer 3

HRP must be integrated part of overall organisational strategic plan

Question 4

What precedes human resource planning?

Answer 4

Strategic HRM planning

Question 5

What is strategic HRM planning?

Answer 5

Defining of the philosophy, objects and strategy

Question 6

Why is HR planning important?

Answer 6

• Critical because it matches organisations and HR objectives with its people requirements
• Focus of it is on labour demand (number of people needed) and labour supply (number of qualified people available)
• Ensures available talent is correctly allocated, labour costs are controlled, employee head count is appropriate, productivity is improved and talented employees are retained

Question 7

What does HR planning involve?

Answer 7

Involve entry of people (acquisition), development of peoples skills (development) and exit of people (departure) from the organisation

Question 8

What could an organisation do if it had surplus employees?

Answer 8

• Review HR policies regarding permanent employment
• Outsourcing
• Retrenchment

Question 9

What problems could an organisation face if it has too many low skilled/poorly qualified employees ?

Answer 9

• May face obstacles when introducing new technology or other change initiatives

Question 10

What questions must be asked when doing HR planning?

Answer 10

o What mix of knowledge, skills and abilities do we require?
o What mix is required in the future?
o Do we have the right number of qualified employees today?
o How will numbers change in the future?
o How do our labour costs and productivity compare with those of our competitors?
o Where will we find the people we need?

Question 11

What are the requirements for successful HR planning?

Answer 11

• HR personnel to understand HR planning process
• Top management is supportive
• Communication between HR and line management is healthy
• HR plan integrated with business strategic business plan
• Balance between quantitative and qualitative approaches to HR plan

Question 12

What effect will a labour shortage have on employees?

Answer 12

o	Burnout
o	Working longer hours
o	Increased pressure
o	Reduced performance/productivity
o	Decrease morale
o	Increase labour turnover

Question 13

What effect will a labour shortage have on the organisation?

Answer 13

o	Inadequate supply of talent
o	Increased overtime costs
o	Production delays
o	Reduced profit
o	Lost business opportunities
o	Industrial relations problems

Question 14

What does HR need to do if there is a labour shortage?

Answer 14

o	Increase overtime
o	Increase casuals/part timers
o	Postpone retirements
o	Start recruiting
o	Accelerate training and development
o	Use outsourcing

Question 15

What effect will a labour surplus have on employees?

Answer 15

o	Rust out
o	Job insecurity
o	Decreased moral
o	Reduced job performance
o	Talents not fully utilised
o	Loss of motivation
o	Restricted career opportunities

Question 16

What effect will labour surplus have on organisation?

Answer 16

o	Excessive payroll costs
o	Employees underutilised
o	Low productivity
o	Loss of competitiveness
o	Retrenchment and downsizing costs
o	Industrial relations problems
o	Danger of losing top talent

Question 17

What does HR need to do if there is a labour surplus?

Answer 17

o	Stop recruiting
o	Reduce casual and part timers
o	Start early retirements
o	Start retrenching
o	Reduce work hours/overtime

Question 18

What is a common mistake when in comes to HR planning?

Answer 18

Only focus on short term plans/goals

Question 19

What factors should be considers when it comes to HR planning?

Answer 19

Must consider both internal and external factors such as economy, social, demographic, technological, legal and political.
Also need to take into consideration, age groups, sex and academic standards required

Question 20

What forecasts are required by the HR manager?

Answer 20

1. Forecast of demand for HR within organisation
2. Forecast supply of human resource available within organisation
3. Forecast of the supply of external HR

Question 21

Why are forecasts used in HR planning?

Answer 21

Forecasts are used to attempt to predict changes in organisations need for human resources

Question 22

What are forecasts influenced by?

Answer 22

Influenced by strategic business objectives, demand for product and services, projected labour turnover, quality and type of state of economy

Question 23

What are the two types of forecasts?

Answer 23

Quantitative approach and qualitative approach

Question 24

What is the quantitative approach?

Answer 24

o Uses stats and maths to forecast demand for and supply of labour
o Uses employees as number and groups them via age, sex, experience, skills, qualifications, job level, pay level, performance rating etc

Question 25

What is the qualitative approach?

Answer 25

o Use of opinions of experts (usually line manager) to predict future HR requirements o Focus is on evaluations of employee performance and promotability as well as management and career development o Not as sophisticated as quantitative method but more popular because they are simple, cheap and fast

Question 26

What is succession planning?

Answer 26

Systematic, long term career development activity that focuses on preparing high-potential employees to fill key professional and management positions so that the organisation can achieve its strategic objectives

Question 27

What is job analysis?

Answer 27

A systemic investigation of the tasks, duties and responsibilities of a job and the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities a person needs to perform the job adequately. Put simply, it identifies what employees are expected to do

Question 28

What does job analysis focus attention on?

Answer 28

Focuses attention on job content, job requirements and job context

Question 29

What is job content?

Answer 29

Duties and responsibilities of job in manner that can range from global statements to detailed descriptions of tasks and procedural steps

Question 30

What is job requirements?

Answer 30

Identifies formal qualifications, knowledge, skills, abilities and personal characteristics that employees need to perform the job

Question 31

What is job context?

Answer 31

Refers to situational and supporting info regarding the particular job, its purpose (where it fits within organisation), scope data (magnitude of financial, human or material resources managed), availability of guidelines, potential consequence of error, amount and closeness of supervision, work setting, physical demands and working conditions

Question 32

What are the different approaches to job analysis?

Answer 32

``` Job orientated (task) approach Employee orientated (behaviour) approach ```

Question 33

When should you do a job analysis?

Answer 33

- When organisations commences - When new job is created - When job is changes significantly

Question 34

What is the steps in the job analysis process?

Answer 34

- Job analysis objective - Type of info to be collected - Sources of data - Methods of data collection - Form of data analysis

Question 35

What is a job description?

Answer 35

- What a job is by identifying its content, requirements and context - Written statement explaining the purpose of a job, what activities are performed, the conditions under which they are accomplished and the performance standards required

Question 36

What info does a job description contain?

Answer 36

``` o Job ID o Job objective o Duties and responsibilities o Relationships o Knowledge o Problem solving o Authority o Accountability o Special circumstances o Performance standards o Trade union memberships ```

Question 37

What is job specifications?

Answer 37

o Focus on knowledge, skills, abilities, personal characteristics and formal qualifications that employee must possess to perform the job successfully o Written statement of formal qualifications, knowledge, skills, abilities and personal characteristics and experience a person need to perform a job successfully

Question 38

What is job design?

Answer 38

o Identifies what work must be performed, how it will be performed, where it is to be performed and who will perform it

Question 39

Why is job analysis essential to HR?

Answer 39

- Job analysis info is essential to HR planning because it helps to accurately determine the number and types of employees to be recruited or exited from the organisation